Before our summer season got busy with propagating and projects, Mark and I took most of May to visit our daughter, turning the trip into a road adventure. We explored botanical and demonstration gardens, went on hikes, and visited native plant nurseries. The experience left me even more frustrated with the lack of similar gardens and nurseries in our area.
Our daughter recently bought a house, and I was excited to help with her garden. One morning, she mentioned a post online about the local grocery store receiving a shipment of native plants. We needed to go because she was looking for a few specific plants. Grocery store? Native plants? I was skeptical. But the selection of native plants at this grocery store was outstanding—I was in shock. Later during our visit, as we were sightseeing, we passed by that grocery chain again. There were still a couple of plants she wanted, so we stopped. Sure enough, they had them!
For our drive home, there were two places I wanted to visit. The first was the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. It’s one of the most beautiful botanical gardens I have ever seen. The amount of information they provide is incredible, showcasing plants in both natural settings and landscaped areas. We only spent a day there this time but plan to return on our next visit.
The final portion of our trip was spent in Tucson, one of our favorite places. We visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a combination of a botanical garden, natural history museum, and zoo. We also hiked Sabino Canyon and visited numerous nurseries. When I arrived in town, I asked someone about finding a native plant nursery. They looked confused and said I could buy native plants at almost any nursery. I assumed they didn’t understand and were referring to desert plants in general. But after asking a few others and getting the same confused response, I realized they knew exactly what I meant. Most nurseries carried plants native to the area, with a few specializing exclusively in plants native to Tucson.
So, why am I telling you about our little vacation? Because we need to do better as a community! Both places we visited had abundant resources for native plants. The public had access to botanical and demonstration gardens and could buy native plants at reasonable prices. Public spaces were landscaped with native plants. While we have incredible public hiking trails, they are not accessible to everyone. We need botanical and demonstration gardens where we can go to see and learn. We need to be able to buy locally native plants.
This can only happen if we, as a community, demand it. We need to build more gardens and tell our government officials that we want public spaces landscaped with native plants. We need to let nurseries know which plants we want and the appropriate times to sell them. Change will only happen if we demand it!
